The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has expressed a need for an electronic mail system (EMS). Much mail starts out in electronic form, which is converted by the postal customer to human readable form. The human readable form, letters, bills, advertising, magazines, and so forth, are then inducted into the postal system to be physically moved around the country and ultimately delivered to the addressee. One object of EMS is to retain electronically generated mail in electronic form until it reaches the destination Post Office, that is, the one from which it will be delivered to the addressee. At the destination Post Office, the mail is for the first time translated into human readable form. Such a system is expected to result in faster mail delivered at a lower cost.
A large percentage of mail originates, however, in human readable form. This includes personal letters, business letters, and so-called turn-around documents. Such documents could be transmitted by facsimile, but this equipment is not generally considered to be operable by the average postal customer. Alternatively, a teletypewriting apparatus could be used, but this requires the postal customer to type his letter right at the terminal, which is rather time consuming. Thus, no readily adaptable electronic mailbox exists.